In fact, it started to look like choosing a Restaurant of the Year for 2012 would be a daunting task. On the one hand, we had Oak — the beautiful Design District establishment from Tommy DeAlano and Richard and Tiffanee Ellman that opened last year, too late to be considered for The Best in DFW: New Restaurants of 2011. And then we had Driftwood, the wonderful seafood spot Jonn Baudoin opened in Oak Cliff in the spring. In October, Matt McCallister introduced FT33, just around the corner from Oak, completely shaking things up. November brought Stephan Pyles’ new Stampede 66 and John Tesar’s Spoon, neither of which could be counted out.

All in all, it has been an exceptional year — what a group of outstanding debuts!

But in the end, the choice for Restaurant of the Year was clear: FT33 is the most impressive debut not just of this year, but of the last two years. Read on to find out what makes it so exciting. The other top newcomers are listed in alphabetical order.

We’re guessing you have your own favorite restaurants that opened in 2012, and we’d certainly love to hear about them. Please turn to Page 25 to learn how to share your choices.

With the debut of their lovely Oak Cliff dining room in the spring, chef Omar Flores and owner Jonn Baudoin focused on seafood in a way heretofore unseen in Dallas. How? By featuring the most fabulous seafood the country has to offer at any given moment in terrifically creative iterations.

Flores’ crudos are lively, his oysters are dreamy, his specials are hard to resist, like whelks jazzed up with kaffir lime and ginger and served in their shells, or house-made black-pepper linguini bathed in uni (sea urchin roe) and topped with halibut cheeks.

With smart, sophisticated garnishes — a modern barigoule with silky wild salmon, sautéed speckled butter beans with sparkling fresh gulf shrimp — his dynamic menu dares to be different. Flores has as much delicious fun with rabbit or duck as he does with halibut cheeks, and his desserts, like an almond-blueberry buckle with sour cherry-brown butter sauce, are among the best in town. All this at fairly reasonable prices.

This Design District restaurant may be the most soothingly beautiful dining room around, and its chef, Jason Maddy, is one of Dallas’ most talented. I loved Oak when it opened late last year, and as it evolves, it gets even better. The cooking is fairly formal, with Austrian, French and Spanish touches. Maddy’s vegetable terrines are spectacular, he does one of the best foie gras torchons around and his charcuterie is superb. His roasted duck breast served over Puy lentils, with foie-gras-enriched Burgundy wine sauce, was one of the most memorable dishes of the year, as was pink snapper with sweet little Manila clams, celery and a suave bouillabaisse sauce.

Oak’s service is gracious, professional and warm, and the desserts, courtesy of pastry chef Sarah Greene, are elegant and appealing.

The Henderson Avenue spot Lisa Garza opened last February was an instant hit. How could it not be? The fried chicken, offered either as a single portion or a bucket for the table, was nothing short of spectacular. That chicken and the other modern Southern dishes that came out of chef Jeffery Hobbs’ kitchen helped earn it a four-star review. Hobbs has since left the restaurant, and the cooking no longer has the same finesse. But the restaurant is still an awful lot of fun, the fried chicken is as crackling, hot, juicy and flavorful as ever, and much of the cooking — particularly the other main courses — is still quite good. With a vibrant dining room and warm, attentive service, it’s definitely one of the top newcomers of the year.

While John Tesar’s new seafood restaurant in Preston Center still feels like a work in progress (it opened in early November), it already has many of the hallmarks of an important restaurant: cooking from one of the city’s highest-profile, most talented chefs; polished, formal service; a striking, comfortable setting; an ambitious menu. Already it’s fascinating to experience what Tesar, a Top Chef star this season and former executive chef at the Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek, is sending out to the tables, from unusual, sparkling fresh crudos to a luxurious oyster and black truffle stew to “Singapore-style” butter-poached lobster served with

Texas toast. Former Mansion pastry

chef David Collier plans to come on board in charge of the sweets sometime in January.

One of the most exciting debuts in recent memory, Stephan Pyles’ splashy new restaurant celebrates Texas, big time, and it does so in a fun, exuberant, delicious way. The place, on the Uptown edge of downtown, is great-looking, with myriad visual and other references to Star Canyon, the signature restaurant Pyles ruled over in the ’90’s. Moody cowboy images and quotes from famous Texans trail across giant video screens, mad-scientist margaritas are mixed from a cart, and Texas red chili, canned in-house, is opened at the table. With a wild roster of terrific tacos, irresistible fried chicken, cowboy-style hanger steak on flannel hash and more, there’s something for everyone — tourists, gastronomes, scenesters, and yes, secessionists.

Why did Nick Badovinus close Neighborhood Services Tavern, one of the best spots on Henderson, earlier this year? Who knows. But I’m thrilled he did, for in its place, he opened the Tried and True, dedicated to the worship of Kentucky bourbons. If you don’t know which to try, flights of three make a great introduction. Campy beer lights, a suspended motorcycle, a pool table, a giant neon bingo sign and dart boards serve as decor. As for eats, a trio of fabulous artisanal country hams pair brilliantly with the bourbons, as do chicharrones. There’s also a splendid burger, briny-good oysters on the half-shell, crave-worthy fish and chips and the like. Warning: Loud live music on the weekends can make conversation impossible.

Tim Love scored big with his sprawling place on the banks of the Trinity River in Fort Worth featuring all manner of things smoked. The traditional barbecue — oak-smoked beef ribs and pecan-smoked pork ribs — is fabulous, and the hickory-smoked sausage, which changes daily (love the duck!), can be lip-smackingly good, too. Don’t miss the freshly griddled, house-made corn tortillas with a pot of “pit master fat,” unless your physician forbids it. There are some wonderful salads (shaved fennel, Bosc pear and crumbled cauliflower or kale with guanciale and Manchego) to start, but not everything impresses. Still, on a balmy day, after a long walk along the Trinity, kicked back with Woodshed’s ’cue and a plastic cup full of Texas craft beer, I can’t think of anyplace I’d rather be.

Ambitious and dynamic, sophisticated and modern, FT33 puts Matt McCallister, a former top toque at Stephan Pyles, squarely in a league with some of the country’s most interesting and talented chefs.

The menu changes frequently according to the ingredients enthralling McCallister at the moment. With duck breast left over from a wine dinner recently, he made duck ham — which became the centerpiece of a sexy salad with Belgian endives, local new potatoes and a duck egg. Earthy sunchokes might meet up with Brussels sprouts petals, a gentle chile sauce and lightly candied pecans.

The marriages are surprising and fresh, yet absolutely harmonic; modernist flourishes keep things lively yet never trump deliciousness. And the plates just happen to be gorgeous. It’s a place to visit frequently, to see what kind of culinary magic McCallister is perpetrating at the moment, whether gorgeously pink pork loin served with butternut squash purée and kale, a chicken ballotine with giant leaves of crunchy savoy cabbage, or luscious uni-chive pancakes.

The feeling of the rustic, industrial-chic dining room is in perfect keeping with the cooking. It’s relaxed yet energized, formal yet friendly, a place you want to hang out. General manager Ryan Tedder’s wine list offers a world of pleasurable adventure. The cocktails are exquisitely balanced. The service is spot-on.

By no means is the place perfect — the desserts need work, and things fall apart a bit if McCallister’s not in the house, which doesn’t seem sustainable. Be that as it may, FT33 is an ambitious undertaking, only 2½ months out of the gate, and it has already led Dallas dining in an exciting new direction.

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